Forget Apple. Xiaomi CEO Now Wants to Be More Like Costco (bloomberg.com) 33
Xiaomi says it's misunderstood. Once compared with Apple for its sleek smartphones and charismatic leadership, the Chinese startup is seeking an image makeover as it tries to recover from a sales-growth slide. From a report: And the brand its billionaire co-founder Lei Jun wants to be compared with: Costco Wholesale Corp., the Issaquah, Washington-based warehouse retailer that sells everything from wine and diamond rings to bulging boxes of cereal and fruit at knockdown prices. Xiaomi's revenue will probably reach $15 billion this year as the Beijing-based maker of products ranging from pens and air purifiers to TVs and smartphones adopts a new business model and fine-tunes operations, Lei, 47, said in a recent interview. "We are not Apple," Lei, clad in a black polo shirt and blue jeans, said at Xiaomi's Bengaluru office in India, its biggest overseas market. "We have the same value system as Costco. We want users to enjoy better products at an affordable price."
Noble of them but... (Score:5, Insightful)
...it takes a lot of discipline to be willing to take less than one could justify. The structure of Costco does this, their upper management does not take all they could, they do not pass all they can on to shareholders. They instead pay their workers well enough that it's possible to make working for Costco in a store a career and to retire from a life in that career.
It's very tempting to instead take more and more and more. It's hard to resist that. Hopefully if they really want to be like Costco they have the fortitude to really mean it.
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For most people, they haven't reached a self-sustaining cycle of perpetual greed. They are not free to manipulate the very system that builds wealth to direct it to themselves.
Corporate officers are much more able to do that. This is why the rich get richer.
Re:Noble of them but... (Score:5, Interesting)
...it takes a lot of discipline to be willing to take less than one could justify. The structure of Costco does this, their upper management does not take all they could, they do not pass all they can on to shareholders. They instead pay their workers well enough that it's possible to make working for Costco in a store a career and to retire from a life in that career.
It's very tempting to instead take more and more and more. It's hard to resist that. Hopefully if they really want to be like Costco they have the fortitude to really mean it.
Costco has a very interesting business model built on loyal employees, and makes it money from memberships, not sales. It's liberal return policy also builds loyalty; I returned an Xbox with the red ring of death, got my money back and promptly bought a new one rather than sending mine to MS for repair and Costco handled the return. That is a key difference, along with the the revenue from memberships, that is hard to replicate. Low price quality goods sold at low margins may attract buyers but can you sustain such a model over time?
Uh, no... (Score:3)
Thanks for this (Score:1)
and I believe you. I don't want Apple's products, average products sold at an inflated price.
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Sounds about right... (Score:2)
I mean, what their aim is, not what they actually are.
Seems to also be the target of many other chinese giants, like Le Eco with it's crazy event.
I can't imagine working conditions and whatnot being good at all... though US based companies probably don't have it any better.
But Xiaomi is among the companies that have been expanding their lines of electronics at an alarming rate, and really coming up with some amazing stuff for the prices... smartphones, drones, sports cameras, you name it.
Smartphones are ple
My xiaomi experience (Score:3)
In the end I came home not only with the webcam but also with their elegant "urban backpack", a well designed non-utilitarian looking backpack that is just perfect to gonto the office with, and not even embarassing when visiting customers.
Xiaomi earned my goodwill.
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Wow, in addition to making apparently decent products, Xiaomi even employs shills with proper grammar.
Top notch, Impressive!
Product Philosophy (Kirkland), not Corporate. (Score:4, Informative)
Everyone keeps mentioning Costco's corporate structure, or how they pay their employees. I took the comment to be more of a reference to Kirkland products. Good products sold for a reasonable price that are relying on their value rather than a name to make them attractive.